On this day 25 years ago

[chico20854]

August 3, 1997

As in late 1950, the stunning success of the Allied summer offensive ultimately leads to disaster. The Soviet STAVKA, its armed forces hard pressed in Europe and struggling to maintain control of Manchuria, decides to take drastic countermeasures in order to neutralize this new threat to its conquests in China. As in late 1950, the Allies are taken by surprise by the direct, overwhelming intervention of a third power. Rushed to the Yalu, the newly-formed Soviet Yalu Front (consisting of the 30th and 35th Soviet Armies) crashes into the long, exposed right flank of 8th Army.

Unofficially,

The troop transport General Patrick loads 3000 replacement troops from Fort Lewis for movement to Alaska, sailing unescorted.

The first levy of American athletes - both collegiate and professional - report to basic training sites around the US following the June policy change which eliminated deferments for top-tier athletes. For many, it is shocking development and underscores just how bad the manpower pinch has become.

A disagreement mars the daily Joint Chiefs morning meeting, when the Army Chief of Staff and Commandant of the Marine Corps, reflecting on the latest manpower figures (losses, accessions and the allocation of drafted personnel), note that the Navy and Air Force have lost considerable numbers of weapons systems (ships and aircraft) and are decreasing in combat power yet continue to receive draftees as if they were still a much larger force, as well as retaining tens of thousands of excess personnel to crew and support ships and weapons that no longer exist and that American industry is unable to replace. The ground combat commanders, whose forces are taking heavy losses from Kaliningrad to Korea, see their manpower strength drop while the Navy and Air Force have excess service members. Chairman Cummings is able to tamp down the argument that follows, decreeing that the matter is to be decided by the Secretary of Defense.

Colonel Tumanski, his Spetsnaz team reduced to four men, receives word from Moscow Center that he is to concentrate his efforts on identifying targets that other teams (or systems) can hit.

Czech, Soviet and Italian troops link up north of Munich, cutting off the narrow corridor that was still open between Austria and Germany. Taking advantage of the transfer of NATO troops south to halt the Italians, the Czechoslovakian 2nd Motor-Rifle Division resumes its advance, capturing Nuremburg.

After several days of preparatory work, the hulk of the USS Iowa is taken under tow by a trio of tugs - two civilian oilfield support boats and the US Navy salvage tug Edenton.

All Italian resistance in Sardinia has ended. The San Marco marine regiment, rushed south from the Trieste battlefront, attempts an amphibious crossing of the Straits of Massina at night. The Italian Marines are decimated by the American paratroopers who are prepared for that eventuality.

photo
To the north of Sicily, a battle erupts as Patrol Hydrofoil Squadron Two, with the six Pegasus-class missile boats, intercepts a Italian surface squadron dispatched from Naples to interdict the NATO transport fleet. While awaiting support from fighter-bombers from the USS America (operating to the south of the island), the hydrofoils accelerate to 48 knots on their foils and close on the Italian ships, which an orbiting E-3 AWACS aircraft in the area has located on radar and relays their position to the missile boats. The American force launches all 48 Harpoon missiles against the Italian force before turning tail and running west in an attempt to escape the Italian force's SSMs. Ten of the American missiles strike, sinking the destroyer Ardito, the frigates Euro and Perseo and damaging the cruiser Andrea Doria. Italian helicopters pursue the retreating hydrofoils and attack them with wire-guided anti-ship missiles. The missile boats, traveling at speed, are difficult targets, and only one, the USS Taurus, is hit. The strike is on the engine room, leaving the boat dead in the water. The crew abandons ship, leaving the boat adrift and smoking, where it is finished off by a flight of G.91Ys (which, in turn, are intercepted by a flight of F/A-18s from VFA-46, losing two). The Andrea Doria receives fatal damage minutes later when hit by a raid of 22 aircraft from the USS America and USS John F Kennedy.

Italian forces enter Ljubljana, capital of the Jugoslav republic of Slovenia. The commander of the Italian Forza Dalmatia establishes his headquarters in Ljubljana Castle, which rises above the city.

The Soviet 42nd Corps occupies the city of Kars, while to the north Soviet forces gain control of the port of Rize.

Convoy 158 arrives at three north German ports - Hamburg, Bremen and Bremerhaven and begin discharging its cargo - the 5th US Marine Division, a heavy brigade's worth of armored and wheeled vehicles as well as munitions, supplies and new vehicles.

[chico20854]

August 4, 1997

The German 10th Panzer Division, hastily transferred from Poland, enters action in Bavaria. The hardened veterans attack the Italian Ariete Armored Division outside Augsburg.

The U.S. 2nd Infantry Division, in central North Korea south of the Yalu, is cut off from the rest of VI (my IX) Corps by the unexpected attack and is temporarily subordinated to the Chinese 28th (my 5th Mountain) Army.

Unofficially,

Another Soviet Spetsnaz team is intercepted and eliminated by the native troops of the Canadian Native Rangers, this one approaching the massive Nanisivik zinc mine on Baffin Island.

The USS Midway battle group withdraws from the Gulf of Alaska, retiring to Bremerton, Washington as the air wing is badly depleted, the Midway's magazines nearly empty and the aged carrier in dire need of refit despite being in service for only eight months.

X Corps continues to resist the Soviet advance in Alaska, slowly being pushed back in heavy fighting.

HMS Eskimo, commissioned in July, begins its first voyage, escorting a resupply convoy to the Persian Gulf.

HQ, UK Land Forces implements Operation Mornington, the reinforcement of BAOR from the strategic reserve. British forces from Northern Ireland and further personnel from Territorial Army units are moved to Germany to fill in the ranks depleted by casualties, placing the bulk of the counter insurgency work in Ireland with the local Ulster Defense Regiment units (which are heavily biased towards the Protestants due to recruitment).

A joint team from the FDA-run National Center for Toxicological Research in Pine Bluff, Arkansas and the Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center at Fort Detrick, Maryland is dispatched to China to investigate the Soviet use of biological and anti-crop weapons.

In Poland and western Ukraine the front remains largely static, despite the near-daily use of artillery-fired or short-range missiles armed with tactical nuclear weapons. NATO and Soviet forces trade the weapons in nearly a one-for-one manner.

One of the tow lines on the battleship Iowa parts when the tugs try to speed the tow up to 4 knots. The salvage effort is halted for six hours while a new line is secured.

Another NATO sortie in the eastern Baltic leads to another clash with the Soviet Baltic fleet. This one is less conclusive but succeeds in turning back the Soviet convoy headed for Kaliningrad as well as forcing the Soviet Baltic Fleet to rally more escorts for future missions. (This results in roughly half as many convoys, each stronger, but overloads the damaged recipient ports as well as being delayed while forming).

The Pinerolo Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) begins moving down the coast from Naples to link up with the San Marco regiment.

A convoy carrying supplies up the hill to the Italian Forza Dalmatia headquarters in Ljubljana Castle is attacked by Slovenian Territorial Defense guerrillas. They fade away into the woods before the guard force can respond.

The Sierra-class SSN K-534 returns to the Arabian Sea south of Oman after a long period in the southern Indian Ocean, where it received replacement torpedoes and a handful of SS-N-21 cruise missiles. It announces its return by putting a trio of torpedoes into the side of the supertanker Protea Guardian.

POWs captured when the Soviets captured Shemya in Alaska arrive in MVD-run prison camps in the Soviet Far East, assigned to the custody of the 92nd Convoy Division, which operates camps from Vladivostok to Sakhalin to the Alaskan border.

[chico20854]

August 5, 1997

Nothing official for today. Unofficially,

The Freedom ship Salt Lake Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The FEMA Stockpile SRS-35587-3, located underground at the Rickwood Caverns State Park in Alabama, is fully stocked and sealed.

The Irish patrol ship Aoife, operating in the southwest approaches to the island nation, is sunk by a torpedo. Postwar research will fail to identify a Soviet submarine reporting the attack, but surviving records are incomplete and over a dozen Soviet boats are unaccounted for fron this time period. Nationalists in Ireland attribute the sinking to a British submarine, although likewise there is no surviving evidence to support this belief.

In a low-key effort, the American Embassy in London is largely evacuated. The evacuation convoy is attacked by a Soviet Spetsnaz unit but the ambassador escapes. Sixteen troops of B Squadron 22 SAS are sent after the unit.

South Korean forces drive the remaining defenders of Pyongyang to Rungra Island in the Taedong River. The South Korean troops are able to fire down on the island from the heights above, but many of the defenders are sheltering underground in the ruins of the 1st of May Stadium, home of the famous pre-war mass gymnastics festival.

The 6th Ranger Battalion, rebuilt at Fort Lewis, Washington after the losses it suffered in the January Operation Steel Bandit attack on Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam, completes its training and is flown to Korea.

The 74th Tank Division, a mobilization-only unit from the Volga Military District, arrives at the front assigned to 3rd Guards Tank Army in the Brest sector. It is organized along 1950s heavy tank division lines, with two tank regiments with T-10M heavy tanks, a breakthrough tank regiment with T-34/85s and a regiment of infantry that relies on the tanks and requisitioned trucks for mobility. The T-10s are hopelessly obsolete - their 122mm guns, while extremely powerful, can only fire two to three rounds a minute, by which time any opposing NATO tank will have fired six or more shots, and ATGMs offer similar anti-tank power in a much lighter package. The aged tanks also move slowly - 50 kmph maximum on roads - and are limited in what bridges they can cross.

The Italians scramble together more forces to reinforce the Ariete Division as the battle around Augsburg grows; Dutch, Danish and German troops have all battled outside the city.

The USS Olympia is ambushed by two Soviet attack submarines, the Akula-class K-480 and the Alfa-class K-463. The detection range is extremely short, and when the Alfa fires its torpedoes at the American sub, Olympia is able to maneuver the Akula in the line of fire. K-480 is hit by the Alfa's torpedoes, and the American boat drives the remaining enemy boat away with a spread of Mk-48 torpedoes, placing in position to be unaware of the Sea Lance-N missile that the American boat drops in front of the fleeing fast Soviet boat. The 200kt W89 warhead on the American missile crushes the Alfa's hull.

At dawn Spanish Marines began landing at Licata, and begin advancing towards Syracuse. Italian COMSUBIN divers succeed in infiltrating the amphibious operations area offshore, attaching explosive charges to the American transports USS Tortuga and USNS Maj. Stephen W. Pless and the helicopter carrier Iwo Jima.

Soviet troops begin to advance westward from the Turkish port of Rize. Their progress is soon halted by the Turkish defenders, who demolish a section of the coast road, leaving a 500-meter gap of sheer cliff leading down to the Black Sea.

The K-534 continues its attack on shipping leaving the Persian Gulf, damaging the supertanker Piper Thrush, which is heavily laden with crude, bound for Spain. The Soviet sub strews a half dozen mines from its torpedo tubes as it withdraws to the south.

CIA operatives inform the Kenyan government of troops massing for what appears to be an impending Tanzanian invasion.

[chico20854]

August 6, 1997

Nothing official today!

Marine Corps squadron VMA-134 at MC Air Station El Toro, California, the A-4 Skyhawk readiness squadron, responsible for training pilots to fly the aged attack aircraft, begins transitioning to the AV-8B Harrier, as the A-4 force in action (exclusively over Iran and from naval shore stations along the Gulf of Mexico) dwindles, largely eliminating the need for new pilots.

1st Battalion, Northumbrian Volunteers, a Home Service Force unit, is raised in Bishop Auckland in northern England. It is built around a core of former service members and equipped with largely obsolescent FAL rifles, Bren LMGs and a platoon's contingent of Humber Pig APCs and assigned local security duties, including hunting down rumored Spetsnaz teams.

The onslaught against the North Korean bastion in Pyongyang continues as South Korean troops bring towed 105mm and 155mm howitzers onto the heights, firing them direct-fire into holdout's identified firing positions. The few tanks remaining to the second- and third-line divisions are withdrawn, transferred to units facing the Soviets and the remnants of the NKPA to the north.

In the mountains of central North Korea, American and South Korean attack helicopters and fighter-bombers try to slow the Soviet advance through the mountains; attack helicotpers try to pick off command vehicles and selectively target vehicles to block narrow mountain roads prior to the fighter-bombers' arrival to blanket the resultant halted column with cluster bombs, napalm and rockets.

SACEUR receives fervent pleas from his subordinate Corps commanders for a relaxation of the political constraints on the employment of tactical nuclear weapons. He is not in favor, knowing that his subordiante commanders, if let off the proverbial leash, would almost immediately launch a major escalation, each desiring to fire dozens of weapons to either thoroughly decimate their opponents or turn the ground in front of their positions into an irradiated wasteland impassible by Soviet troops. SACEUR fears that such a development will result in a proportionate response by his Soviet counterpart, or possibly an escalation, stranding his troops hundreds of miles from "home" territory. He offers additional release of chemical munitions to their control to partially offset his denial of their request.

US Marines enter Palermo while the greatly reduced Aosta Brigade batters itself to pieces against the American and Canadian paratroopers who had been digging in to Messina for days. En route, the Italian brigade is under constant air attack by USMC and Spanish Harrier and USMC Cobra aircraft. The North Coastal Road becomes a highway of death.

The Soviet 42nd Corps moves west out of the city of Kars in eastern Turkey after a pause of several days to resupply. The 42nd MRD heads southwest, overrunning the scattered outpost line thrown up by the Turkish Third Army.

XVIII Airborne Corps in Iran tries to maintain a coherent, organized withdrawal. Light mechanized units (the 14th ACR and 9th ID) try to maintain a screen for the lighter units and support formations to withdraw behind. In this effort the support of Allied airpower is essential, since the LAVs and TOW missile vehicles of the light forces can be easily overwhelmed by the superior armor of the Soviet tank and motor-rifle divisions; the American ground units become masters of calling in artillery fire and air strikes and guiding attack helicopters of the 6th ACCB on advancing Soviet units.

5th Fleet command institutes local convoying of tankers carrying crude oil to Allied nations. The Salem battlegroup is stripped of escorts (the cruiser is docked in Bandar Abbas), augmented by frigates from the Belleau Wood amphibious group to escort the tankers to a point 350 nm south of the mouth of the Gulf, where the convoys disperse and the laden vessels proceed independently, each on their own seperate course to their destination under the long-range protection of patrol aircraft from shore bases and the carrier Independence.

[chico20854]

August 7, 1997

As the tactical nuclear exchanges continue, people in the US seem relieved - a nuclear holocaust hasn't resulted immediately, and although things are still tense, it seems like one might not break out.

Southern TVD commander Suryakin is granted permission from Stavka to begin the small-scale use of tactical nuclear weapons to reinforce the offensive to drive CENTCOM and its allies back to the shore of the Persian Gulf.

Kenyan forces rush into position to blunt the initial Tanzanian thrusts, spoiling the Tanzanian surprise attack from succeeding.

Soviet electronic warfare units radio-locate the headquarters of the Chinese 28th (my 5th Mountain) Army and within hours the headquarters is struck by a SS-23 missile (fired by the 20th Guards Missile Brigade). The Chinese headquarters is destroyed in the strike.

Unofficially,

The front in North Korea is active in five areas. The reduction of the North Korean defense of Pyongyang continues. Along the Sea of Japan on the east coast a combined USMC-South Korean force, supported by the cruiser Des Moines, is slowly being pushed south from the approaches to Vladivostok. There is a more or less contiguous defense line along the Chongchon River from the Yellow Sea deep into the center of the country, maintained by American and Commonwealth troops and mechanized elements of the South Korean Army. Finally, along the Yalu there are two salients where Allied forces have linked up with Chinese units - the 28th (my 5th Mountain) Army and 2nd US Infantry Division, operating south from the Yalu to the city of Kanggye, and the 31st (my 3rd) and 15th Airborne Armies, with the US 25th ID and the British 6th Division, at the mouth of the Yalu.

The commander of the newly raised NATO SOUTHAG tries to rationalize his front line, creating pure national formations rather than the jumble of allied forces that has, by necessity, emerged.

The Italian Pinerolo Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) is hit by a US 100 kt tactical nuclear strike in Villa San Giovanni, making it very clear to the Italian Government that no reinforcement from the mainland will be possible and marking the end of active combat operations in Sicily.

The Soviet 42nd MRD continues its advance in eastern Turkey, climbing into rougher terrain as the highway climbs into the mountains on the way to the next sizeable town, Erzurum. The 19th MRD remains largely immobile in Kars, releasing many of its trucks to carry supplies to sustain the 42nd's advance. Along the coast, the 156th MRD remains isolated in the port town of Rize; a detachment of its 550th Motor-Rifle Regiment has opened an overland route back to Batumi, Georgia, largely clearing the coast road of Turkish troops. (to be safe, however, the divisional commander orders each supply convoy to receive a robust escort, aware of the threat posed by highly motivated Turkish troops).

At the front in Pakistan, the defenders continue to give up ground, although the prior weeks' armored counterattack has managed to buy time to seal the breakthrough. The war descends into a slow, slogging war of infantry, trenches and artillery; cursed to continue as a war of attrition until one side runs out of ammunition or men. Given the vast populations of both nations, analysts predict that the supply of munitions will determine the outcome of the war, if a nuclear holocaust can be avoided.

[chico20854]

August 8, 1997

The forces of the 28th (my 5th Mountain) Army begin to disintegrate. The US 2nd Infantry Division, which had fallen under the Chinese headquarters' command after being cut off by Soviet forces, begins to withdraw south.

The Great War of Africa expands as Tanzania, reinforced by large numbers of Zambian and Mozambique volunteers, invades Kenya to capture the port of Mombasa and its refinery and thus cut off fuel and supplies to Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi.

Unofficially,

The Italian Aosta Brigade surrenders to the NATO forces on the island of Sicily.

In beseiged Warsaw, Captain Czarny's depleted ZOMO company is once again thrown into action, this time aiding the defense of Fort Bema on the northwestern portion of the perimeter. His mortar team (equipped with a pair of 82mm mortars) distinguishes itself by striking at a German logistic operation at the nearby Warsaw-Babice Airport.

The commander of the British II Corps in northwestern Byelorussia informs his subordinates that, unofficially at least, he sees no way to continue the offensive and that he strives to have the Corps hold the line along the Narew as long as possible.

The Tu-22M2DP interceptor resumes its operations over the North Atlantic, taking advantage of the weakening of US naval and USAF aircraft defending the airlanes. A pair of the converted bombers infiltrate the air tracks south of Iceland, one eastbound and the other westbound, and over the next 45 minutes shoot down 18 Allied transports (both civil and military, all but one carrying troops, wounded or supplies).

The Sierra-class submarine K-534 torpedoes the American transport ship Cape Texas as it crossed the Indian Ocean with a cargo of badly-needed vehicles for CENTCOM. The Independence battle group sails southwest, deploying its squadron of S-3 ASW planes, escorting SSN and surface ships and helicopters in an effort to locate the marauding sub.

Argentina tries to divert attention from the poor situation at home and considers launching an invasion of the Falklands. A naval task force is prepared and even sets sail. It's departure is noted by MI6 agents, who have kept a careful watch on Argentine naval bases since 1982.

[chico20854]

August 9, 1997

Nothing in canon for the day. Unofficially,

The Queens Royal Irish Hussars are deployed to the continent to reinforce I British Corps in Bavaria. The Chieftain tank battalion comes from UK Land Forces' strategic reserve.

The Foreign Minister calls the Argentine ambassador to confront him about the departure of the Argentine naval task force (its movement confirmed by American satellites). The ambassador (truthfully) reports that he is unaware of the development and relays the message to Buenos Aires. Nonetheless, HM Government orders reinforcement of the garrison infantry company on the islands.

As the lead American battalions of the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division bash their way through Soviet lines, the division's support command tries to impose some order among the thousands of panicked Chinese troops that want to accompany the American force south. Working with the division's MP company, many of the Chinese troops are disarmed and assigned duties as porters. The most experienced (and especially, those that can speak English or Korean) are assigned as squad leaders for ad-hoc CATUSA (Chinese Augmentees to the US Army, modeled on the long-standing KATUSA program that bulked up US Army units with South Korean conscripts) squads, assigned to round-up American infantry platoons. In Pyongyang, South Korean troops close in on the ruins of the 1st of May Stadium, last holdout of the fanatical defenders o Pyongyang.

The 60th Bomb Squadron, 43rd Bomb Wing disperses some of its B-52s to Guam International Airport, out of the blast zone of nuclear weapons that might be targeted at Anderson Air Force Base or Guam Naval Station.

The 257th Motor-Rifle Division arrives at the front, where it is assigned to reinforce the battered 3rd Guards Tank Army.

II MEF (the US Marine's 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force), previously located in Denmark and previously mostly concerned with coordinating support for three widely spread Marine Expeditionary Brigades, takes an active role as a front-line corps with 5th Marine Division, the 6th Marine Expeditionary Brigade and the German 18th Coast Defense Regiment under command. It also secures the release of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade from Norway along with its associated Marine Aircraft Group 14. The headquarters moves into northeastern Poland, assaulting Kaliningrad along the coast.

XXIII US Corps rotates the battered 40th Infantry Division from the lines in southern Warsaw to the front in the east, where its AFVs and tanks will be more fruitfully employed. The 40th's positions are assumed by the former West German border guards of the 2nd GrenzJaeger Division.

As rough weather approaches the Baltic, and given the poor condition of the ship, the commander of the USS Iowa salvage effort makes the decision to beach the battleship on a gentle section of the German Baltic Coast. Within a few hours the view from the pretty resort town of Boltenhagen is drastically changed, with 58,000 tons of steel lurking offshore.

Catania is the last major town in Sicily to fall under NATO control when Spanish Marines arrive. American and Canadian troops begin a sweep of the island to round up any surviving defenders.

It being a week after the mobilization order was given, the dictatorial Albanian ruler Kio Bedaj and the Politburo demand a status report. The defense minister reports that the Army and the Voluntary Forces of Popular Self-Defense militia have manned the 175,000 bunkers scattered around the country and are ready to repulse a combined NATO-Pact-Jugoslav invasion. If a combined air and amphibious assault is launched, like the one just unleashed on Sicily, it would fail as the landing force would be brought under immediate fire from the nearest bunkers while one of the nation's tank brigades would soon arrive to overrun the landing site. Bedaj asks about the Army's ability to intervene to protect the oppressed Albanian minorities in nearby Kosovo and Macedonia. The defense minister explains that the Army is not deployed to carry that mission out, with the tank brigades spread around the nation to counter an enemy invasion, and a repositioning will take weeks since the Army only possesses a dozen tank transporters.

The USAF 57th Fighter Interceptor Squadron and the 465th Tactical Fighter Squadron in Keflavik, Iceland scramble all available aircraft to prevent a repeat of the prior day's massacre in the air lanes across the North Atlantic, while NATO airlift planners route more aircraft across the mid-Atlantic, flooding the Azores with as many aircraft as it can land and refuel. Anticipating such a response, the Soviets ground the Tu-22M2DPs temporarily.

Allied logistics teams in Iran complete their cleanup of the battlefield from the Battle of the Valley some weeks prior. Australian fitters are able to recover all of the damaged Leopard tanks that had been lost in the battle and restore over 80 percent of them to service, while Iranian teams (many composed of grizzled veterans of the superhuman efforts needed to sustain the war effort against Iraq in the 80s) have amazingly been able to recover over 100 T-34/85s lost by the Soviet 69th Tank Division. Forty are restored to running condition and issued to lower-quality infantry divisions while the rest are hauled off to be emplaced as pillboxes around Shiraz and guarding choke points in the Zagros Mountains.

At the Kapustin Yar test site in south-central Russia, scientists and engineers from the Kolomna Machine-Building Design Bureau launch the first of a series of six SS-23 missiles fitted with an experimental new guidance package that, using technology developed from salvage from downed and crashed American Tomahawk cruise missiles, is nearly 7 times more accurate than the seeker currently fitted. The test is a success, hitting 12 m from the aim point when fired 500 km.

[chico20854]

August 10, 1997

Another day with nothing in the canon. Unofficially,

1st Brigade, 49th Armored Division (Texas National Guard) completes Rotation 97-8 at NTC-3 at the Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona and is declared combat ready, redeeming the brigade and its new commander after a disastrous NTC rotation in late 1996 that led to new leadership, re-equipment with M1/M2-series vehicles and widescale retraining and replacement of personnel.

A high-priority airlift carries the headquarters and first company of the 4th Battalion, The Kings Own Border Regiment to Ascension Island, en route to the Falklands.

Heavy fighting continues in central Pyongyang as gangs of POWs and engineers clear rubble from roads through the capital, creating a main supply route to the front to the north. The MSR speeds the flow of reinforcements and supplies to the beleagured troops of the US I and IX Corps and their Korean and Commonwealth allies to the north, who had previously been relying on a patchwork of secondary roads, marginal in the best of times, for the bulk of their support.

The Dutch Marine Corps, in order to exploit the vast pool of Marine reservists, (over 1500 of them under the age of 35) who have not been called up for service in the three Amphibious Combat Groups or four Security Groups, forms the 9th Marine Amphibious Combat Group. The Dutch government intends to use the unit to support NATO operations in the Mediterranean, potentially in operations in Sicily, Jugoslavia or Turkey. Due to the situation the formation is equipped with obsolescent weapons from war stockpiles (FAL rifles, Uzi SMGs, 106mm recoilless rifles instead of Dragon or Tank Breaker missiles, .50 caliber machineguns instead of Stinger missiles for air defense) and requisitioned civilian vehicles for mobility ashore.

The US 6th Marine Expeditionary Brigade and troops of the 27th Marines launch a predawn transit of the Vistula Lagoon in AAVP-9 amphibians, assaulting the Soviet naval base at Baltiysk. The remnants of the base (it was first attacked by Marineflieger Tornadoes in November and has been struck numerous times since then) are defended by the sailors and shoreside staff, formed into the ad-hoc Division Baltiysk. Fierce fighting rages throughout the town, and the coming of the dawn makes any further crossings of the lagoon perilous at best. Allied naval forces are active offshore, and the American destroyer Coontz, returned to action following multiple repairs, provides naval gunfire support with its 5-inch gun.

Remaining British and Canadian units in Norway are pulled out, staging in England in preparation for deployment to Iran, where the situation continues to look bleak.

The Soviet 45th (my 32nd) and 4th Armies are maintaining pressure on XVIII Airborne Corps in Iran. They have pushed 9th ID's screen back to the town of Ardakan high in the Zagros Mountains. To their east 40th Army has surrounded the 1st Marine Division at Yadz, although their cordon is leaky enough that small caravans of Iranian civilians (some contracted by the Americans or Iranian intelligence) are able to slip through, bringing small quantities of ammunition, food and fuel to the Marines. To the west, 7th Army is slowly driving the 24th Infantry Division south, back towards the defense lines it had maintained throughout May and June.

Two more SS-23 missiles are fired at Kapustin Yar. They reflect similar increases in accuracy.

[chico20854]

August 11, 1997

The 106th Guards Air Assault Division, a high command reserve unit, is brought forward into Poland from its home station of Tula.

The 1st Tank Division enters action on the Polish-Ukrainian border; the veterans of the war in China, assigned to 1st Guards tank Army, face off against the German 2nd PanzerGrenadier Division.

Unofficially,

The Freedom ship Dallas Freedom is delivered in Galveston, Texas.

A Soviet spetsnaz team locates the rear headquarters of the Dutch 102nd Artillery Group; following its doctrine it immediately attacks and temporarily overruns it, capturing a number of documents before being driven off by a counterattack by a scratch force of Dutch mechanics, truck drivers and clerks. The remnants of the US Army Berlin Brigade (consolidated into two weak battalions) is alerted for deployment to the Warsaw perimeter, where its urban combat expertise could be best used.

The Battle of Baltiysk continues, with the 28th Marine Regiment ferried into the city overnight and a flight of A-7Es of VA-66, operating off the USS Coral Sea, stopping a Soviet reinforcement column with an attack with three B-57 nuclear bombs as they approached the city.

Convoy 161 forms in the North Sea for a voyage to North America. It contains many of the ships from Convoy 158 that brought the 5th Marine Division to Europe, the Freedom ships Austin, Birmingham, Michigan and Oklahoma Freedom and over 40 other assorted merchantmen. The escort consists of two American frigates (the Brooke and Kauffman), the former Coast Guard cutters Munro and Tahoma, the Canadian destroyer Maragee, all led by the American destroyer Harry W Hill.

At the next Albanian Politburo session, the minister of the economy reports that the mobilization has stripped approximately one third of the labor force and that as a consequence the goals of the latest Five-Year plan are unlikely to be achieved. Oil production has been halved from the nation's oil fields and four refineries, the copper smelters are operating at half capacity. The wholesale callup of the nation's educated men (who form the officer corps) will soon cripple the major industrial enterprises. The minister of agriculture reports that the fall harvest, which usually requires the deployment of over half the peacetime Army, will be catastrophic unless the units currently on alert are allocated to assist in the harvest. The minister of transport reports that the nation will soon have all recalled reservists en route to their mobilization stations, the national fleet of nearly 5000 buses able to reach most of the remote mountain towns along the Jugoslav and Greek borders.

photo
The carrier USS Independence, operating in the Arabian Sea, is struck by a Type-65 torpedo from the Sierra-class SSN K-534, and is lucky to stay afloat after receiving extensive damage. It loses two of its four propellers and a rudder is hopelessly jammed, along with a prop shaft blown out by the torpedo (the ship's Nixie torpedo decoy worked-barely). There is some internal flooding and shock damage as well.

The SS-23 test firing series is disrupted when the first of two missiles to be fired for the day explodes shortly after launch.

[chico20854]

August 12, 1997

Canon is silent on today. Unofficially,

The Canadian Navy recommissions the last of the St. Laurent-class destroyers, the Assinboine, which had been paid off in 1988 but used as a training and accommodation ship since then. The ship required extensive refit, but emerges with a modern 76mm gun, electronics and sonar. It is put into service on the convoy lanes.

The Japanese 1st Airborne Brigade is, at its commander's request, thrown into action in the final battle for Pyongyang. His troops seem less than eager, although his officers are enthusiastic about being there for the end of the North Korean regime. (Allied intelligence has not ruled out the possibility that the Kim dynasty is lurking in the tunnels under the 1st of May Stadium.)

Exploiting the documents captured from the Dutch 102nd Artillery Group headquarters, the GRU directs several other Spetsnaz teams into the area behind the Dutch front lines in Bavaria. Over a four-hour predawn period three of the Dutch 8-inch howitzer batteries are overrun, although an attack on the unit's tactical nuclear weapons storage site is driven off with heavy losses on both sides.

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As US Marines gain control of the town of Baltiysk, the Soviet command orders its surviving defenders out. Shortly after 10 pm the city is struck by a SSC-3 Styx coast defense missile fitted with a 15kt warhead, destroying much of what had survived. Casaulties among the marines were relatively light, as most were in fighting positions or inside buildings that provided protection from the worst blast effects.

The US Navy returns the carrier Eisenhower to service in the Atlantic after over six weeks of repairs at Scapa Flow. The damage has only been partially repaired, with the two waist catapults out of operation; fabrication of replacement machinery is expected to take another nine months.

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In Iran, Frontal Aviation makes another mass raid against Persian Gulf ports, with a fighter-bomber regiment tasked to neutralize the pipeline terminals. American and Saudi early warning aircraft detect the Soviet force as it forms up over northern Iran, and the raid is met with swarms of American, Iranian, Qatari and Saudi fighters.

The SS-23 test series is paused for additional inspections of the two remaining test missiles.

The 4th Battalion, The Kings Own Border Regiment, a TA regiment from Lancaster, closes on RAF Mount Pleasant in the Falkland Islands. One ex-regular sergeant had even been in the Falklands as a Lance-Corporal in 2 Para in 1982. A unit of Argentine commandos lands on West Falkland and moves into hiding.

[chico20854]

August 13, 1997

The 26th Infantry Division (Light) (Massachusetts and Connecticut National Guard) is withdrawn into reserve behind I Corps' front line following heavy action (unofficially) against the Soviet 30th Army. The fighting along the I Corps front is the first combat between American and Bulgarian troops when the Bulgarian 11th Tank Brigade's T-62s are thrust forward to try to take advantage of the withdrawal of the 26th.

The 40th Infantry Division (Mechanized), en route to a blocking position in eastern Poland, is struck by seven Soviet tactical nuclear weapons in the space of 15 minutes. The attacks inflict heavy casaulties and leave the division combat ineffective.

Unofficially,

The 6th Marine Expeditionary Brigade is withdrawn from the ruins of Baltiysk; it has seen months of action, culminating in the Battle of Baltiysk and the Soviet nuclear strike on the city that served as the final act of that engagement. To the east, the 23rd Army, attached to 2nd Western Front and commanding a miscellaneous assortment of units from around the USSR, launches a counterattack in the Suwałki corridor, the short section of Lithuanian-Polish border between Kaliningrad and Byelorussia. The attack comes at the junction between the US III Corps and II British Corps and, supported by a trio of nuclear strikes, makes 10 km of progress in its initial 12 hours.

The Sierra-III class sub K-231 begins its sole combat patrol from the Balaclava naval base in the Crimea; the boat's voyage transits the Bosporus (submerged) and Mediterranean.

The 487th Tactical Missile Wing(-) in Turkey fires its first missiles, targeting the Bulgarian Black Sea ports of Varna and Burgas through which the Soviets are ferrying troops and supplies to the Turkish and Romanian fronts, with eight missiles.

In eastern Turkey the Turkish Third Army is able to hold the Soviet 42nd Corps' assaults at bay. The highly motivated Turkish troops are still somewhat well supplied and the units contain a sizeable proportion of experienced troops that have managed to avoid being redirected to the fronts in the Balkans and Cyprus.

In central Iran the 26th (my 295th) Motor-Rifle Division, advancing quickly through the Zagros in pursuit of XVIII Airborne Corps, is caught in a series of airmobile ambushes by the 101st Air Assault Division and the 6th AACB. The Soviet division pauses as nightfall approaches, each regiment and battalion establishing laagers along the narrow mountain road, with mutually reinforcing fields of fire. The inexperienced NCOs, however, fail to post observation posts on the nearby mountain peaks, judging the effort to climb them too taxing on their already exhauseted men. Taking advantage of the terrain and the enemy's lack of night vision equipment, the Americans land a series of ambush parties along the route the Soviet division will take during the next day's advance; these parties are well equipped with TOW-equipped FAVs and HMMWs and engineer squads, which lay mines and prepare to create obstacles. When the Soviet battalions begin moving in the morning, they are engaged from the heights above and trapped strung out along the roads. After nearly two hours of withering American fire the division's artillery and anti-aircraft weapons, coupled with air support from reinforcing Hinds of the 381st Helicopter Regiment, are able to suppress the American attackers, who slip back over the ridges into adjoining valleys, where their own helicopters quickly arrive to extract them. In total, the Soviet division loses nearly all of its tanks and 60 percent of its infantry and artillery in the attack and is rendered combat ineffective. The Americans lose fourteen TOW launch vehicles, six attack helicopters and two companies of infantry.

The SS-23 test series is concluded at Kapustin Yar. The overall improvement in accuracy is impressive.

The arrival of the Territorial Army battalion in the Falklands, just as the Argentine task force is in a position to launch, throws the Argentine plan awry. The Argentines back down with the Argentine government planning to let the islands gradually suffer with reduced support from the U.K. as the war in Europe and ongoing nuclear exchange drain resources, eventually, it is hoped, forcing the local population to come begging to establish closer links with Argentina on their own (and in years to come gradually become Argentinian).

[chico20854]

August 14, 1997

As nuclear attacks continue to strike Polish targets, a second wave of refugees arrive in the Wieliczka Salt Mine. They join others, mostly locals, who have been sheltering underground since June. The original residents have erected crude huts and tents, but these latest arrivals are forced to stay in vast common barracks in some of the mine's larger vaults and chambers.

Unofficially,

Naval fighter-attack squadron VFA-174, disbanded in June aboard the USS Independence after being reduced to 3 aircraft, is reactivated at NAS Leemore, California and assigned eight F/A-18s (three new production, three from the readiness squadron VFA-125 and two culled from test and evaluation duties). The "new" squadron's personnel are a mix of veteran VFA-174 personnel evacauted from the Middle East, new recruits and staff "borrowed" from the station's staff. It is assigned to the USS Ranger, which is in the midst of trying to reactivate an air wing after the heavy losses it suffered in Vietnam in January.

As the fighting in the ruins of the 1st of May Stadium in central Pyongyang has gone almost entirely underground, the commander of the Japanese 1st Airborne Brigade suddenly orders all Allied forces aboveground. Within an hour the order has been carried out, and one of the war's great atrocities unfolds when trucks arrive and begin dumping bags of dry chemicals on the ground by the entrances to the subterranean network. Right-wing officers soon pour liquid chemicals onto the bags and clouds of choking green chlorine gas, heavier than air, begin to form and sink into the tunnels below. Panicked North Korean troops, badly burned, are shot as they desperately try to escape the choking gas. The defense of Pyongyang has ended.

The headquarters, 2nd Marine Division prepares for the division to be reunited for the first time since the outbreak of war as each of its three subordinate MEBs are en-route to its location.

3rd Guards Tank Army launches another series of attacks westward, including with its relatively fresh 74th Tank Division, in an attempt to break through to Warsaw. To the north, 23rd Army continues its advance, with two divisions of elite paratroops (the 44th Guards Training and 106th Guards) in the lead.

The US 8th Marine Expeditionary Brigade re-embarks aboard amphibious shipping in the damaged port of Syracuse; they are being transferred to the Baltic.

The Albanian minister of defense reports that all the Army's 22 divisions have been fully formed and are in the process of issuing weapons and equipment and beginning training. At this news, the Albanian leader flies into a rage, demanding to know why it took so long, accusing the defense minister of wasting the vast sums dedicated to defense. As the startled communist leader stumbles to explain the diversion of resources to building bunkers, the lack of spare parts for the Chinese tanks, the inadequate numbers of officers, the constant diversion of men to support the economy and low education levels among the ranks he is instead arrested for treason.

The cat-and-mouse game over the North Atlantic resumes when a single Tu-22M2DP slips unnoticed over eastern Greenland and into the air lanes. The picking is slimmer than in the prior week, with a Canadian Air Force CC-137 (Boeing 707) of No. 437 Squadron falling victim to a missile, while the countermeasures aboard a USAF C-5B of the 436th Military Airlift Wing decoy the missile targeted at it. The tables are turned on the Soviets, however, when a USAF F-15 of the 57th Fighter Interceptor Squadron locates the Tu-16 tanker orbiting southwest of Spitsbergen that is waiting to refuel the Soviet interceptor on its return flight. The tanker is downed and the raider is quite surprised when it discovers that the aircraft it is rendezvousing with is an American fighter, which downs it with a long burst from its 20mm cannon.

The 9th Infantry Divison (Motorized), serving as the rear guard of XVIII Airborne Corps as it retreats back towards the Persian Gulf, has been pushed back to the town of Kazerun, in the western Zagros Mountains. The 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment, operating largely independently of other American units but supporting the Iranian II Corps, hangs on to the town of Behbehan as it is pressured by the 9th (my 1st) Army, and the joint American-Iranian armored force north of Bandar-Khomeyni has fought the 7th Army to a halt, taking advantage of the salt ponds of the area to channel the Soviets into a narrower front.

[chico20854]

August 15, 1997

The scattered remains of the US 40th Infantry Division (Mechanized) (California National Guard) are withdrawn to Germany to reform.

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Boise Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas and the Portland and Abilene Freedoms in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

After a month of dispersal, Strategic Air Command settles into a routine. The majority of airborne alert sorties are flown by aircraft launched from a squadron's main operating base, but the dispersed aircraft have begun to require more advanced maintenance than the mobile support teams that have moved to the dispersal locations. Accordingly, a schedule is implemented to rotate aircraft and crews (both air and ground), with aircraft completing alert sorties landing at a dispersal base, being replaced in the air by an aircraft from the dispersal base, which in turn will return to the main operating base at the end of its flight. Rotation of ground crews is more basic, involving non-tactical buses and trucks; many dispersal bases are within commuting distance of the main operating base and crews don't need to move into temporary alternative housing when permitted off base.

The 173rd Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron (Nevada Air National Guard), down to four RF-16s, is placed in reserve at Chitose Air Base, Japan.

The top South Korean Air Force ace, Soryeong (Major) Rhee Song Jii of the 153rd Fighter Squadron, is listed as missing in action when his F-4E is brought down by ground fire whilst escorting a pair of F-4Es attacking a Soviet armored column in Russia near the Korean border. He is seen to eject by his wingman, but no contact can be made with him despite extensive searches by U.S. and Chinese ground troops in the area, though his WSO is rescued. Soryeong Rhee has 26 kills to his credit when he is shot down.

The commander of the Japanese 1st Airborne Brigade is arrested by US MPs of the 8th Military Police Brigade on charges of violating the laws of war with the prior day's gassing in Pyongyang.

The Dutch Red Army blows up a rail line east of Enschede; a train evacuating NATO wounded from Germany is derailed. This is the Dutch Red Army's last successful attack.

The 6th Marine Expeditionary Brigade arrives in Denmark, where it is united with the 2nd MEB, recently arrived from Norway.

The Polish Army in the small enclave in the southeast remaining under Communist control launches a fresh series of attacks as well. The Polish attack is initiated with a blast from a nuclear-tipped FROG-7 rocket against the headquarters of the German 29th Panzer Division. The unguided rocket misses, landing nearly 3 km away, but the blast disrupts the unit's operations, allowing the subsequent attack (its massed infantry advancing supported by T-34s in a scene reminiscent of the 1940s) to overrun the outer German picket line before being halted at the main line of resistance.

In northern Poland the 23rd Army continues its advance, gaining another one or two kilometers of ground from its American and British foes.

In Bavaria the front is relatively quiet as the Soviet 21st Army organizes its forces for action after the disruption and losses incurred in the conquest of Austria. On the opposite side of the lines the Austrian 1st PanzerGrenadier Division, its ranks swelled back above its original strength by stragglers and escapees from other Bundesheer units, is assigned to the German IV Korps.

The New York Air National Guard's 102nd Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron arrives at Trapani Birgi Air Base in Sicily, following the success of Operation Carthaginian. From this location it is better able to provide combat search and rescue over the Mediterranean and even Balkan theaters than from its prior base in Gibraltar.

The carriers John F. Kennedy and America, after a brief pause to resupply and refuel, return to action in the Mediterranean with a return to the air over the Taranto naval base. The days' raid expends nearly all of the groups' remaining stock of stand-off munitions, yet the commander of the Sixth Fleet is, at yet, reluctant to use another tactical nuclear strike on Italy, even though that would help ensure a resumption of NATO ships' transit of the Adriatic.

The head of the SS-23 project at the Kolomna Machine-Building Design Bureau delivers his preliminary findings to the Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Ministry of Defense. The Colonel-General in charge orders that the new guidance package is to be fitted to all future SS-23 production.

The newly arrived TA battalion in the Falklands uncovers a recently abandoned Argentine observation post on West Falkland; the battalion is put on alert and redoubles its patrolling.

[chico20854]

August 16, 1997

Twenty kilometers short of Nairobi the Tanzanians run into an ambush, hit from the sky by MD 500 TOW carrying helicopters and from the ground by Vickers tanks. Tanzanian SAMs take a heavy toll of the attacking helicopters but not before they cause significant damage to the tank formations. Kenyas Vickers tanks prove themselves equal to the T-54, Chinese Type 59 & 62 and Scorpion tanks of Tanzania, bringing the attack to a standstill.

Unofficially,

Alarmed at the losses among the carrier fleet, the US Navy's Sea Systems Command urges a rapid completion of the refurbishment of the former Spanish light carrier Cabot, in drydock in New Orleans, and allocates additional sailors (from what is rapidly becoming an embarrassing excess) to the carrier's "pre-commissioning unit". There is less enthusiasm for the reactivation at NAVAIR, which has to find aircraft to operate off the ship, which is a challenge given that American industry is working full tilt to produce a total of six Harrier jump jets a month, well below the loss rate experienced by USMC squadrons.

Unbeknownst to Allied forces, Sooryeong Rhee, the top South Korean ace, is captured by KGB Border Guards while trying to reach the coast to escape Soviet territory. He is brought to Border Guard regional headquarters in Vladivostok while the regional KGB director contemplates what benefit he can gain by trading him to the North Koreans, PVO air defense troops and Army versus sending him to Moscow.

The consequences for the Japanese 1st Airborne Brigade continue, with the unit pulled back to South Korean territory and the officers involved with the gas attack in Pyongyang arrested as well.

Along the front, Soviet forces launch another attack on I Corps, which is turned back with heavy losses.

Desertion begins to be a serious problem for Soviet commanders in the Torun pocket in Poland, where the Baltic Front (with the remnants of two Soviet and one Polish army) is surrounded by the German I and XII Korps. Supplies in the pocket are running low, as the front is sustained only by a trickle of low-level nighttime helicopter flights, and STAVKA has refused multiple requests from the Western TVD to have the command break out and rejoin friendly lines. STAVKA considers the diversion of two German corps and the continued occupation of Polish territory as more valuable than having the forces available to strengthen the defenses of the Soviet border. The Germans, in turn, have stepped up their psychological warfare against the surrounded Pact force, exploiting the "abandonment" of the command, encouraging ethnic tension between the various Soviet nationalities and stoking resentment among the Polish troops about purported slights inflicted on them by the Soviets.

The 23rd Army's attack in northeast Poland, slowed down in the wooded terrain laden with swamps, woods and lakes, is checked by an American counterattack. The 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, reinforced with the 75th Field Artillery Brigade, breaks through the Soviet flank, driving forward over 20 km, cutting two of the Army's three supply routes. The cavalry disperses into the woods on either side of the supply route, while the artillery batteries seek shelter in small clearings and meadows in the area. The regiment's remaining attack helicopters scour the roads for Soviet vehicles and scouts (on foot, in M3 Cavalry vehicles and airborne in Kiowa Warrior helicotpers) call in strikes; depending on the importance of the target the munitions may be conventional or nuclear (FASCAM, DPICM and SADARM for armor units, tactical nuclear for nuclear strike systems, headquarters and logistics sites and chemical for infantry).

US Navy SEALs and Marine Force Recon commandos attack the Greek naval base at Salamis, near Athens. they sink the destroyer Kanaris, missile boats Plotarhis Blessas and Ipoploiarhos Konidis, landing ship Kriti and tanker Yliki as well as damaging the fleet headquarters and setting two repair shops ablaze.

Task Force 60, Sixth Fleet's carrier strike force, hits the Italian air force base at Lecce-Galatina to prevent it from being used by Italy's rapidly shrinking force of F-104S air defense fighters.

The 29th Infantry Division (Light)(Maryland and Virginia National Guard) is released from Strategic Reserve and embarks aboard a mix of commercial vessels and naval amphibious shipping for transit to the CENTCOM area of operations. Due to losses in the amphibious fleet, the division's aviation brigade loads many of its helicopters aboard the roll-on/roll-off cargo ship Lurline, which is fitted out with makeshift flight facilities.

The damaged carrier USS Independence is towed into the port of Muscat, Oman.

Following orders from Moscow, production of SS-23 missiles at the Votkinsk Machine Building Plant is halted, allowing all future missiles to be fitted with the new guidance package.

[chico20854]

August 17, 1997

Kenyas six F-5E and two F-5Fs prove themselves superior to the Tanzanian Air Force, destroying fifteen Tanzanian aircraft in fierce air battles over Nairobi and Mombasa while losing three F-5E and one F-5F in the process.

Unofficially,

An international incident occurs outside Wichita Falls, Texas when a when a platoon of the 4th Texas Brigade (a state guard unit) stops a convoy of Soviet POWs being escorted by US Air Force security police to a work site, overpowers the guards and beats a dozen of the prisoners in retaliation for the outbreak of nuclear warfare in Europe.

As the Des Moines battlegroup in the Sea of Japan uses its guns to support the Marines of the 1st MEB and their Korean allies as they slowly withdraw along the North Korean coast it is attacked by an enemy submarine group. A helicopter from the frigate George Philip detects a sub contact and chases it down, assisted by a SH-60 helicopter from the destroyer Fletcher. After nearly 45 minutes, three torpedoes are dropped and the submarine, a North Korean Romeo-class boat, is sunk. Unfortunately, while the battlegroup command was concentrating on the North Korean boat a second sub, the Soviet Kilo-class boat B-175, slipped closer to the battle group, taking advantage of the shallow water and difficult coastal currents. The Soviet sub fires a spread of straight-running Type 53-66 torpedoes at the Des Moines; luckily (for the Americans) all of them miss after the cruiser makes a (pre-ordered) turn. A lookout aboard the ship sights the torpedoes and sounds the alarm, sending the whole battlegroup on alert. Despite hours of frantic searching, B-175 is able to escape, its commander intent on striking Des Moines in a future encounter.

A task force of Dutch marines assault a farmhouse where members of the Dutch Red Army have taken hostages. The terrorists and their hostages are killed. This is that last combat action against the Dutch Red Army, which has been broken by months of aggressive counterterror operations on the part of Dutch intelligence, police and special forces.

In Bavaria, the Soviet 21st Army assumes responsibility for the sector between the Italians and the Czechs, facing NATO forces from Regensburg to Ingolstadt. That permits the Italians to shift forces west to attempt to outflank the dug-in defenders of Augsburg and reinforce the westernmost drive into Baden-Wurttemberg, which is bogged down by the US XX Corps west of the Iller River.

Convoy 418 from Oman to US arrives off Capetown, South Africa. The Victory ship Wayne Victory is one of 38 cargo ships and tankers, escorted by but two escorts, the British frigate Juno and the destroyer USS Kincaid, in the convoy.

The US Navy's Patrol Hydrofoil Missile Squadron Two begins operations along the west coast of Italy, seeking to keep the Italian fleet off balance and prevent it from breaking south into the Mediterranean shipping routes.

In Sicily, six F-111Fs of the 495th Tactical Fighter Squadron arrive at Comiso airbase, which it had attacked just weeks before, and begins using the base to fly strike missions against targets on the Italian mainland and in western Greece.

The Albanian secret police, the Sigurimi, hold a hasty trial for the former minister of defense. He is quickly convicted of being a quadruple agent, working for the USSR, China and NATO to cripple the valiant Albanian people's efforts to defend themselves in a world bent on destroying its only true Marxist state.